1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention pertains generally to a microchannel particle separation system (and method of operation) that contains different antibodies in different regions of a microchannel. More specifically, the invention relates to using negative dielectric electrophoresis (negative dielectrophoresis or nDEP) within a microchannel separation apparatus to make particles (i.e. beads) move (detached) or remain stationary (attached). When a voltage is turned on to a selected microchannel region, only the beads within that region move while all other beads in the microchannel remain stationary.
2. Description of Related Art
Various electrophoretic-based separation techniques exist in the world of analytical procedures. Many of these techniques utilize the difference in particle size and electrophoretic properties of the particles within a solution to collect and separate particles of interest. This technique can be limiting if you are trying to separate different particles of the same size.
The much less traditional procedure of dielectric electrophoresis (dielectrophoresis or DEP) utilizes field-polarized particles that move under the application of positive (attractive) and/or negative (repulsive) applied forces.